What are the competitors of the Apple Vision Pro?

In June 2012, Google announced its Google Glass, augmented reality lenses capable of transferring many of the functions that were done with the phone to smart glasses. The project did not succeed, but since then there have been many attempts by the technology industry to put glasses on our faces so that the virtual world blends with reality.

With the arrival in the United States just a week ago of the Apple Vision Pro, the market for this type of device seems to have revived again. Many talk about a technological revolution when we are faced with a device that has already been invented in almost all of its functions, but it must be recognized that Apple makes the most of its glasses and it shows that it puts care into the details, with a quality not seen until now.

But in the market that the Vision Pro reaches, there are already many other viewers that have been looking for a place for a long time or that boom in extended reality that they have been promising us for a long time. Will Apple's be the detonator? Complicated, but who knows.

Meta, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg, is one of the companies that has put the most effort into virtual and augmented reality (in fact, it changed the name of the company due to its forecast of success in these technologies). Their latest release, the Meta Quest 3, are one of the best mixed reality devices (augmented and virtual) at the moment and boast very good definition in the images and, above all, having a built-in battery, not like Apple's. These glasses can also be used by moving your hands, without the included controllers, but Meta has another device with more sensors and greater precision when using gesture control, the Quest Pro, which already doubles the price of the previous ones to 1,169 euros.

Very focused on the gaming part are the PlayStation VR2. They are controlled with controllers but also include intelligent eye tracking and haptic feedback. To get more fully into games, vibration in the headphones or controllers and good 4K image quality in each lens is essential in these glasses.

Other lenses that could want to compete directly with Apple's are those of the Chinese company Bytedance, owner of TikTok. The Pico 4 are focused on virtual reality and the truth is that in image quality, sound and handling, they are very far from the Cupertino ones, and also from the previous ones, but their price is also lower.

For their part, other well-known technology brands such as Oppo are also playing in this market with their Oppo MR Glass, mixed reality glasses that capture what is around us and superimpose 3D images. As a curiosity, the viewer includes heart rate detection and works with two controls. At the moment they are a prototype that is not for sale.

Like Meta, the Chinese HTC has been experimenting with this type of technology for many years and has shown several glasses and proposals, many times in the form of a prototype and other times with launches. One of the most striking currently are the HTC Vive XR Elite, mixed reality glasses with LCD technology and immersive sound. Of course, to use them it is necessary to connect them to a powerful computer.

Furthermore, everything indicates that in the coming months other companies such as Huawei or Xiaomi will also launch their glasses to further open up the possibilities of this market that has been around for years but still has a long way to go until it is a mass product.